Centering Selected Component in Tree
Centering Selected Component in Tree
(OP)
NX 7.5
Is there a way that when you select a component in modeling space that it will automatically highlight and center the assembly navigator on that component?
Is there a way that when you select a component in modeling space that it will automatically highlight and center the assembly navigator on that component?





RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
Nx 7.5.5.4
Teamcenter 8
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
Nx 7.5.5.4
Teamcenter 8
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
So to get this to happen, go to...
Tools -> Assembly Navigator -> Find Selected Component...
...and select the component of interest. Note that the dialog will remain open and active so that all you have to do to 'find' another component is to select another one without any additional action(s).
A quicker way to do this is to place your cursor over some 'white' space in the Assembly Navigator, press MB3, select the 'Find Selected Components' option and this will open the same dialog and then you can go from there.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
For those people moving to NX 8.5, with the introduction of the 'Shortcut Toolbar', items like these are some of the candidates that people may wish to add to the standard 'Shortcut Toolbar' using Customize. I just did this, first with the 'Find in Navigator' icon from the Selection Bar and then the 'Find Selected Component...' from the Tools -> Assembly Navigator menu. In either case, all I have to do now is select my component of interest and when the 'Shortcut Toolbar' comes up (which it will do automatically in NX 8.5 without having to take any additional action) I just select the 'Find' icon from the toolbar and I immediately see it highlighted in the Assembly Navigator.
Also note that in all of the methods described above, even if the Assembly Navigator is closed, it will automatically pop-open so that you can see the highlighted Component.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
We've given you three different schemes which does what you want except that of course you have to initiate the action either by launching a dialog or at least selecting an icon after selecting a Component. I can't see how we can make it any easier than that.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
www.nxjournaling.com
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
In the end, once you have NX 8.5 installed, adding one of the 'Find' options to the 'Shortcut Toolbar' for Components will give you the absolute closest to what you're looking for, albeit without ACTUALLY 'centering' the Assembly Navigator list to the highlighted Component.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
And how then does the solutions suggested by nithink and myself NOT provide that behavior? And as I said, once you get NX 8.5 installed, this can be streamlined even more.
I hope that you're not expecting us to be open to adding an ADDITIONAL scheme which would provide EXACTLY what you're asking for when we've ALREADY given you 95% of what you've asked for.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
I don't mean to go off on a tangent, but does using NX8.5 still have the feel of a computer program written for Windows 3.1 like NX7.5? I just want to make sure that NX8.5 will not force me to load a DOS prompt screen to use certain features.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
But getting back to the exact behavior that you're ASKING for, do you really think it would be a good idea that EVERYTIME you selected a Component on the screen that the Assembly Navigator should suddenly pop-open, update the display so that the selected Component was precisely centered in the listing, and if needed, expand the listing to whatever level was necessary so that the selected Component was visible? How long do you think it will be before other users, and perhaps even yourself, will be demanding that we make this behavior something that can easily be turned ON/OFF since after awhile having the Assembly Navigator constantly popping-open and flashing as the list is updating is going to get really old? I would hardly call this behavior "user friendly" yet that's exactly what it would be like IF we enhanced NX to do exactly as you're ASKING us to do.
There's an old adage when designing user interfaces: [b]"It can be very difficult to make something easier to user by simply adding to it."{/b]
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
That being said, even without waiting for NX 8.5, you could go into Customize today (in NX 7.5) and add a shortcut or 'Hot-Key' to the...
Tools -> Assembly Navigator -> Find Selected Component...
...menu item whereby making THAT 'Hot-Key' in essence your 'ON' button and the 'Esc' key would be your 'OFF' button. How does that sound?
To test this, using NX 7.5, I went into...
Tools -> Customize...
...selected the 'Keyboard' button at the bottom of the Customize dialog, and then in the 'Categories:' section of the dialog I navigated down to Tools -> Assembly Navigator and then in the 'Commands:' section I found and selected Find Selected Components.... I then in the 'Press new shortcut key:' entry I entered the letter 'c'. I then changed the 'Use new shortcut in:' to 'Application Only' and then hit the 'Assign' button. Then I closed this dialog and then the Customize dialog.
Now all I have to do is press the 'c' key and the 'Find Component' dialog opens and I'm good to go. Then I just press the 'Esc' key to close the dialog.
Note that to save this change to the user interface so that it will never be lost, you will need to resave your current Role.
For now, I can't make it any simpler than that.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
Brand "c" acts this way OOTB.
Can 8.X do it the way ChaseWichert prefers, or not?
Short answer, please.
Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..
To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
When I want to find a component I have no interest in simply finding it and being done, I want to find it and modify something, then I want to move to another one and modify that one. You have been doing a lot of good suggesting of ways to do what we want, but not actually answering if what I asked can just be done. However, based on all of your defensive posts I am assuming that it can't be done how I asked.
Back when I asked A simple 'no that can't be done', would have been sufficient rather than trying to make it seem like what I was asking is completely ridiculous. I don't know if you took me asking that question as me attacking NX or whatever, but it wasn't. It was just a simple question that was quickly blown out of proportion.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
However, what I was attempting to do from my first post onward was to offer you WAYS to accomplish basically what you wanted to do in a manner that WAS supported by the software, as well as to inform you, and others, as to how this might change in the latest release, in this case NX 8.5, which has been available for several months now.
As for making what you asked for sound "ridiculous", that was only apparent after you refused to accept that what was already possible could provide you with virtually everything that you had asked for. It was your insistence that only a 100% solutions was acceptable is what resulted in what you claim was I becoming "defensive". Up until then I thought I was helping you by pointing out how you could use the software as it was intended to be used. If that was not what you were looking for, help in getting the most out of what you already had, well I'm sorry that I've wasted your time by making you wade through my posts when all you were looking for was an binary response.
If this explanation is too long or not what you were looking for, perhaps you need to look elsewhere for support. And if you think that's a bit harsh or rude on my part, well I've never hidden for whom I work for so you could easily follow-up by contacting my management team. After all, they're very familiar with me and what I do for the company and our customers as I've been with the company for over 32 years, virtually all of it in a role where I interface with customers who are looking for help or more information about how they can use the current capabilities of the software.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: Centering Selected Component in Tree